Hooker (27 page)

‘Don’t. You need your rest. The quicker you get better, the sooner I can take you home.’

I hope she’ll come back to my place when she leaves here. Now that M is no longer a threat, she’s free to go back to her apartment, but I find myself hoping that’s not the decision she makes. Still, I won’t pressure her, even though I’d like too.

Rolling onto her side, she tucks her hands under her face and smiles at me. It astounds me how quickly she became my world, because that’s exactly what she is.

She still won’t close her eyes, so maybe it’s best if I go. I don’t want to leave her, but my need to see my father is just as strong as my desire to stay here. I’m struggling to comprehend that he’d actually be a part of this.

When my mind is made up, I say, ‘I actually need to step out for a while. Would it be okay if Josh and Theo came and sat with you while I’m gone?’

I see a smile tug at her lips before she speaks. ‘Are they out there together?’

‘I guess,’ I reply.

‘Have they been out there the whole time?’

‘Yes.’ Her face lights up and I wonder what she’s up to. I lean down and place a small kiss on her cheek. ‘I won’t be long, I promise.’

‘Okay,’ she replies, as her eyes finally close.

‘I love you.’

She
doesn’t say it back. As much as I’d like to hear her say she loves me too, I’m okay with it. I close my eyes and briefly rest my forehead against hers. Why is the thought of leaving her again tearing me up inside? Perhaps it’s because, only hours ago, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see her again.

I give Josh strict instructions not to leave Jade’s side until I return. He gives me the keys to his car since I’d travelled here in the back of an ambulance. I intend to go and see my father, have it out with him and make sure he never goes anywhere near Jade again.

*

By the time I reach the office it’s safe to say I’m consumed with anger. God help my father when I get my hands on him.

‘Mr Weston, your father is in the middle of an important call. He asked not be disturbed,’ his secretary, Renee, says as I approach.

I walk straight past her without replying.

Reaching for the handle, I ignore her comment, flinging the door open with so much force it crashes into the adjoining wall with a loud bang. My father’s head immediately snaps up and his eyes meet mine. When the colour drains from his face, I know he understands why I’m here. I close the door to his office, locking it behind me. There will be no escaping this conversation.

‘Look, I’ll have to call you back,’ he says in a shaky voice before ending his call. He has good reason to be worried.

Stalking around the desk, I grab the lapels of his suit jacket before reefing him out of his seat. ‘You were behind Jade’s disappearance?’

‘She’s
a damn whore. I was only returning her to her rightful owner. She has no place being with you.’

‘You had no right to interfere. She was forced into working for that monster. I saved her, and you threw her back without any regard for her safety or my feelings.’

‘I did you a favour.’

I let go of his jacket and he falls back into his seat. I clench my hands by my sides to stop myself knocking his smug head off his shoulders. I shake with the effort. How can we be related? How can this man’s blood be running through my veins? We’re so different.
I have a heart
.

‘Pack your shit and get the fuck out of my building. You’re fired.’

‘You can’t fire me,’ he says. ‘This is my company. I founded Weston Global.’

‘And then you gave it to me, remember? I’m CEO now. Either you go or I do.’

‘Giving you this company was the biggest mistake of my life.’

Is he for real? I made this fucking company. It was going nowhere until I took over.

‘Then tell me, Father, why did you sign it over to me?’

‘Because you’re my son!’ he screams, smashing his hand down on the desk. ‘I wanted this company to be my legacy. Was that too much to ask?’

It isn’t, but since when did he give a fuck about his family?

‘I can’t believe you’re going to throw everything away over a piece of pussy.’

‘She’s not just a piece of pussy. I’m in love with her.’ I don’t even know why I’m telling him this. He’s proved countless times over the years that he has no compassion for anyone but himself.

He laughs. ‘You’re pathetic.’

It
takes everything in me not to lunge at him. ‘At least I’m capable of having feelings.’

‘I thought you were different, but I was wrong. You’re just like your brother. I wanted sons, but instead I got fucking pansies. I’m ashamed of you—both of you.’

‘Listen here, old man,’ I grate through clenched teeth. My hands latch onto the armrests on either side of his office chair so I can lean right into his face, and my fingers dig painfully into the leather. I’ve never experienced rage of this magnitude before. ‘You’ve managed to push me pretty far in the past, but believe me when I say you’ve never seen me pushed to my limit. I’m warning you now, I’m teetering on the edge. So, I’d shut that fucking mouth of yours if I was you. Don’t test me because, trust me, it will
not
end well.’

‘You think I’m scared of your idle threats, boy?’ He knows damn well this isn’t an idle threat. He may be wearing a composed look of his face, but his dilated pupils tell me an entirely different story. I’m trained to read body language. I know all the tell-tale signs. It’s time to show this fucker just how serious I am.

Letting go of the chair, my hands roughly grab his tie as I draw him even closer. Our noses are practically touching. If he wasn’t twenty-eight years my senior, I’d knock him out.

‘Put it this way, Father, you go anywhere near Jade again and I’ll fucking kill you.’ I give him a shove as I let go, making the chair tilt backwards when he lands with a thud. ‘Consider yourself warned. I despise you. I’m ashamed to be your son,’ I say. I don’t even wait for a reply as I turn to leave. From this day forward he’s dead to me.

Fuck him, and fuck this company. I don’t need any of it. Storming past Renee and down the corridor, I head for my
office. I need to calm the fuck down before I get behind the wheel again. As I pass my secretary, Amy, I hold my hand up to stop her before she speaks. The last thing I want to do is lose my cool with her. I’m fucking livid.

I slam my office door so hard the windows rattle. I wouldn’t give a fuck if they broke. I swipe my hand angrily across my desk, sending everything flying across the room. I want to scream—no, I want to hit something or someone. Unlike my father, though, I know the meaning of respect.

A crushing feeling forms in my chest as I slump into the chair and rest my head in my hands. I’m angry, but more than anything, I’m hurt. How could my father have such blatant disregard for his own flesh and blood? I’ve disliked him for years, but I still loved him—he’s my father and I’m his son. It’s quite obvious to me now that the love only runs one way. A father is supposed to love his children.

All those feelings from the moment I learnt my father wasn’t the great man I’d always believed him to be, come flooding to the surface. I actually feel like doing something I haven’t done since I was a kid—cry. Fuck him, I won’t give him the satisfaction.

A knock on my door pulls me from my inner turmoil.

‘Go away!’

‘Mr Weston,’ Amy calls. I shouldn’t take my foul mood out on her, but I’m in no state to talk to anyone at the moment. I’m on the verge of losing my shit and I don’t want her to be in the firing line. ‘Mr Weston, please, I need to speak to you urgently. It’s about your father.’

‘Fuck my father,’ I retort.

‘Please,’ she begs. ‘It’s important.’

The
desperation in her voice has me rising from my chair. I stalk across the room.

‘Please just give me some time calm down,’ I say when I open the door.

There’s concern on Amy’s face—she actually looks like she is on the verge of tears.

‘It’s your father, Mr Weston—he’s … he’s dead.’

JADE

When
I wake, I find Theo asleep in the chair in the corner. There’s no sign of Joshua, or more importantly, Brock. The moment Theo opens his eyes, I know something terrible has happened. I ask him where the boys are, and I’m in no way prepared for what he tells me.

My first instincts are to go to Brock, but Theo won’t take me. Although Maxwell Weston was far from my favourite person, I can imagine how his death will be affecting his sons.

‘Brock hasn’t taken the news well,’ Theo says. ‘I’ve promised him I’ll look after you. Don’t worry, when he’s ready, he’ll come.’

His words both shock and confuse me. Maybe given the history between his father and me, they shouldn’t, but they do. I’m afraid to ask Theo if Brock has specifically said he doesn’t want to see me, because I have a feeling in my gut that he’d say yes. My instincts are usually pretty spot on.

I try to push that thought out of my mind. I still can’t believe that Maxwell Weston is actually dead. Apparently he’d
collapsed in his office. Joshua told Theo that Brock’s efforts to revive him had been futile. That only made my need to go to Brock intensify.

Later that morning, the doctor finally discharges me. With Theo by my side, and Brock forefront in my mind, we head straight for Rupert’s room. There was no way I was leaving this hospital without seeing him.

I pause momentarily at the doorway of his room. Boy, I’ve missed Rupert. This is the first time I’d seen him since I stopped working for M. For years he’d been a huge part of my daily life, so having no contact with him has been hard. This was not how I hoped our reunion would be though.

Hesitantly, I step into the room. The moment my eyes land on Rupert, I take a sharp breath. I’m usually pretty good at keeping my emotions in check, but seeing him lying in that bed, connected to so many machines, is too much. Knowing he’d risked his life and had taken a bullet for me fills me with a mixture of gratitude and guilt.

‘I’m all right,’ he says when I cross the room and hug him, weeping softly into his chest. I have so much to say to him, but for now all I can manage to get out is a measly, ‘Thank you.’ I’ll be forever indebted to him for what he did.

‘You don’t have to thank me, I’m just glad to see you’re okay.’ His voice is raspy as he speaks.

When I eventually pull myself together, I draw back and wipe my eyes with the back of my hand.

‘How are you?’ he asks, concerned. I can’t believe he’s worried about me. I’m not the one with a gunshot wound.

‘I’m fine,’ I say, giving him a reassuring smile. ‘How are you?’

‘It’ll
take more than a bullet to bring me down.’ He chuckles, before screwing up his face and placing his hand on his bandaged shoulder. It hurts to see him like this.

Theo brings a chair over, placing it beside the bed. When I’m seated, I reach for Rupert’s hand, giving it a squeeze. After rewarding me with a smile, his gaze moves to Theo.

‘Mr James,’ he says. ‘It’s good to see you again.’

‘You too,’ Theo replies, ‘but I wish it were under better circumstances.’

I watch as Rupert’s eyes move towards the door and then back to me. ‘Where’s Brock?’

My shoulders slump. ‘His father passed away.’

‘Shit.’

I’m glad he doesn’t ask any other questions because there’s nothing more I can tell him.

We stay by Rupert’s side for a few hours, but as time wears on, I can see he’s tired and he needs to rest. It’s hard for me to leave him, but I promise to come back tomorrow. I have no idea if he has any family, and I hate myself for not knowing. He’s always seemed like a private person and has never talked about his life outside of work. I’m going to make it my mission to find out more about him. The real him. The man he was before coming to work for M. Our relationship has always been more than just a working one. I care about him, and the fact that he has risked his life for me tells me he cares about me as well.

Theo has his driver pick us up from the hospital. ‘We’ll grab what you need from your place before heading back to mine,’ he says.

‘I’ll be fine staying at my apartment on my own, but thanks for the offer.’ He’s already gone out of his way for me,
I don’t want to disrupt his life any more than I already have: he’s spent the past two days at the hospital.

‘Nice try, but I’m not letting you out of my sight. I promised Brock and Josh I’d look after you, and that’s exactly what I plan to do.’

‘I’m quite capable of looking after myself,’ I say with a laugh. I’ve looked after myself for most of my life. ‘M’s not a threat to me anymore.’

‘She may be behind bars for now, but for how long? You know as well as anyone that she has some pretty powerful friends.’

I sigh. He’s right. I know for a fact that she has judges and politicians on her payroll. A few of them are my clients. I wouldn’t put it past her to call in favours or threaten bribery to help beat the charges. She’s as corrupt as they come and would stoop to any level to save her own skin.

‘I’m not going to put you out, Theo.’

‘You won’t be. I adore your company, you know that.’ He covers my hand with his. ‘It’s a done deal, babycakes, I’m not letting you out of my sight until Brock comes and collects you.’

I smile at his pet name for me. He hasn’t called me that in a long time. But I’m not impressed about being bossed around yet again, even if I understand he’s only doing it because he cares. I can’t be angry at him for that.

There’s still no reply from the boys when I check my phone. I can’t get them out of my mind. I’m tempted to ask Theo if his driver can swing by Brock’s house too, but I don’t want to force myself on him. He’s obviously grieving; I’m sure he knows I’m here when he’s ready.

Theo asks his driver to wait for us out the front of my building. I’m both surprised and thrilled to find everything
still intact when we enter my apartment—I was expecting to see the place trashed.

‘Would you mind if I had a quick shower before we leave?’ I ask Theo. There was no point in me having one at the hospital because I had no clean clothes.

‘Of course not. Knock yourself out.’ He plops down on my couch and reaches for the television remote that’s sitting on my coffee table, making himself at home.